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Happy New Year. Needless to say, it has been an eventful start to the new year given what is going on in our country. I attempt to remind myself that this current situation is not the book of our country, it is not the net result of our experiment with democracy; but only a chapter. Still, I am deeply concerned on many levels.

That being said, we went on a longish hike in the snow to clear our minds and find a bit of real-world outside — the above photo was taken yesterday with my phone camera. It is looking west from Tribal Land near an old homestead site in a creek bottom. These are all deer tracks, and perhaps someone had been on skis here a couple weeks ago.

This lower photo was taken from on top of the cliffs overlooking the Flathead River, from yesterday’s hike as well. Glorious sunshine we enjoyed greatly; sunlight has been quite scarce this winter so far. We saw swans and various other waterfowl since the river is not iced. I am grateful that places like this exist. Keep the faith; fight the good fight, my friends.

It’s hard to imagine there is an entire herd of Elk at the National Bison Range. They share the hillsides, mountains and prairie land with the Bison, the coyote, the Pronghorn, the deer and all the other critters this wildlife preserve protects. In the spring, Matt and I have a spot where we watch the bunnies chasing each other around the lawn near the pond. And there are always turtles sunning themselves.

What a treat though to see this bull elk. That doesn’t happen too often and certainly not every visit do we see elk. This guy was all by himself grazing near the road at sunset yesterday evening. The sun glinted off his antlers as he posed for me. Pretty soon, he grew tired of being stared at and meandered up the hill.

Happy New Year to all of you. These elk were grazing at sundown on the Bison Range last week. We climbed a small hill near the visitor’s center and were surprised to see all of them, quite intent on their job of eating. We counted 63 plus a few Bison to the east of the elk grazing the same hill. You can see them really well if you click on the pic.

This is Matt’s Slow Stick RC electric plane. I think he likes it better than chocolate. He built it from a kit but chose most of electronics himself. He tinkers with it often and sometimes he lets me fly!

While he was flying I saw some Bison.They really are big animals as this was taken at quite a distance.These are the lucky seven. Don’t get in their way and they are fine.